


Free Coupon

by plutosrose



Series: Free Coupon 'Verse [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:00:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24591934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plutosrose/pseuds/plutosrose
Summary: Jin comes to the tea shop where Zuko works to use her free coupon.
Relationships: Jin/Zuko (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Free Coupon 'Verse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1902505
Comments: 25
Kudos: 206





	Free Coupon

“It was nice,” is all Zuko says when his Uncle asks him about his date with Jin.

He slams the door behind him and rests against it. The truth of the matter is that he likes Jin very much. She’s nice, she’s patient, and if he thinks about it, playing their relationship out years in the future, they could be very happy together.

Except, there are two problems:

The first, is that there will be no happiness for her, not with him. They’d already had one close call in the tea shop, where Jet had loudly proclaimed to the entire tea shop - and indeed, the entire street - that he and his Uncle were Fire Nation. He hadn’t seen Jet since he’d been arrested, but that didn’t mean that there couldn’t be more Jets.

Two possible scenarios come to mind.

In the first scenario, the one where the Avatar wins the war, it will probably only be a matter of time before someone discovers that he and his Uncle have other names, and they’re carted in front of the Avatar to stand trial. He can’t really envision Aang throwing him in prison, but he probably would, right? He would throw him in prison.

And in the second, the one where the Fire Nation conquers the entire known world, Fire Nation soldiers cart him and his Uncle off to stand trial in front of Azula. Trial is a strong word, he thinks - because he knows that if Azula captures them for the Fire Nation, there will be nothing resembling a trial.

Both would destroy this sweet Earth Kingdom girl who spends all of her free time sipping tea in the tea shop where they work.

And well, the second is more complicated than Azula torturing him to death in a Fire Nation prison.

~

He thinks about Mai more often than he doesn’t. It may have been years since he’d seen her, and he may now have to imagine what she looks like, what she cares about, but it doesn’t matter. He still thinks about her.

He thinks about her long black hair, and the way that her mother always carefully helped her with it every morning. He thinks about the fact that Azula would manipulate their mother into forcing him to play with her, Ty Lee, and Mai.

He thinks about the fact that she hates everything - the war, Fire Nation politics, people who laugh too loudly during plays, people who don’t laugh loudly enough, priceless art, lanterns, darkness - really the list goes on. He thinks about the way that her nose wrinkles delicately as she describes these things in detail, and thinks about the way that he could listen to her talk all day.

He isn’t sure if he loves her or if he loves the idea of going back to the Fire Nation, his honor restored, and being with her again under those conditions. It’s hard to say, but it isn’t as though he can tell the difference, not even to himself.

He knows that his mother and father did not love each other.

~

It’s three days before he spots Jin again, seated at her usual table. The moment that his Uncle spots her, he waves Zuko away from the table he’d just been serving. “Lee, please go see what kind of tea the young lady would like,” he says, a knowing look in his eyes that makes Zuko grit his teeth in annoyance.

Jin is smiling at him when he approaches, despite the way that their last date ended. “Hi,” she said softly.

“Hi,” he said, feeling a blush creep up his features. “Tea?”

He brandishes the pot too quickly, and he has to put both hands on the hot metal to try and stop it from sloshing all over the table and Jin herself. A few drops of the hot liquid spilled onto his hands.

“I had a free coupon,” she held up the coupon that he’d given on her on their date. She gives him a look of concern. “You didn’t just burn your hand, did you?”

He shook his head, although he had definitely just burned his hand.

“I wanted to...I wanted to….apologize,” he stammered, before remembering that he probably should have poured her a cup of tea.

As he poured - carefully, although the longer he stood there, the more he felt that he was in danger of accidentally dropping the teapot, she shook her head.

“Look, I don’t know,” she murmured softly. “Maybe I pressured you. You and your uncle just moved here. Everyday my family sees more refugees coming in. It must be hard.”

Zuko hasn’t been in Ba Sing Se for very long, but he isn’t stupid. He knows that the war is not mentioned here. It might as well not exist, despite the fact that scores of refugees - just like him and his Uncle - are arriving in the city on the train every morning.

  
She gives him a look, one that is expectant and full of meaning. Briefly, he wonders if she’s pieced together a story in her head--one where he and his Uncle were attacked by firebenders. Maybe she had even bought the line about them being part of a traveling circus.

Technically, they have been attacked by firebenders, multiple times, in fact, but he hates the way that he feels in that moment - as though he’s some kind of survivor, and not someone who bears the mark of shame and lost honor.

“Yeah,” he murmurs finally. “It is hard.”

“Is that what you meant by ‘it’s complicated?’” she asked, raising an eyebrow. Zuko shakes his head.

“No.”

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No.”

“But there is a girl.”

That he can’t argue with, as much as he wants to. There’s a high probability that he’s never going to see Mai again, and while he’s accepted that for the most part, he can’t stop himself from holding on as tightly to her memory as he possibly can.

Jin smiles sadly. “That’s okay, Lee. But, I was hoping that we could be friends, at least.”

A friend, Zuko thinks, sounds safer than a girlfriend, although it sounds unbelievable, to say the least. He’d never really had friends. Mai was probably the closest thing that he had to one. Being the son of the Fire Lord, Fire nobles were often very enthusiastic about having him and their children play together, regardless of whether they were actually friends.

Jin doesn’t know who he is. In fact, she thinks he’s Lee, who lives with his Uncle Moshi, and works in a tea shop. She definitely doesn’t think that he’s a firebender - or even a bender at all. Maybe she even thinks that he’s an out-of-practice circus juggler.

“I have to get back to work,” he says, even though when he makes eye contact with his Uncle, he waves him off again. “But…”

This is a bad idea, and he knows it. If she suspects anything - if she sees his Uncle so much as warm a cup of tea, she might get suspicious. Any friendly feelings she has will evaporate. She will not stick by him if he’s captured - either by the Avatar, the Earth Kingdom, or Azula.

But, it doesn’t matter. Because in that moment, he allows himself to sink into a fantasy, where he’s Lee, he has an Uncle Moshi, and he works in a tea shop. And he has never bended anything, fire or otherwise.

A small smile comes to his features. “Yeah,” he murmurs, and she looks at him expectantly. “Maybe come back tomorrow after my shift is over and we can go for a walk?”

She smiles back.

“Sure Lee, I’d like that.”

Zuko decides that for now, Lee is the only person he wants to be.


End file.
